Today, Microsoft officially releases Windows Server 2012, the first of its latest wave of new operating systems. It shares a few things with the upcoming Windows 8 client operating system, including the same Windows NT 6.2 kernel, and the same Metro and Desktop split-personality graphical interface—at least if you choose to install it. It also shares the same sort of cloud-centric focus as the Windows 8 client—except rather than just connecting to cloud services, Server 2012 is intended to be the building block for them.

Windows Server 2012 probably won’t have the adoption lag in the enterprise that Windows 8 is bound to face. That's because, aside from the Metro GUI, Server 2012’s biggest changes are in substance rather than style, building upon what the company delivered with Windows Server 2008 Release 2 three years ago. In particular, Server 2012 takes two management features Server 2008 R2 admins will be familiar with—Server Manager and PowerShell—and expands on them considerably.

While many of the changes in Server 2012 are incremental improvements over its predecessor, Windows Server 2008 Release 2, the new features are more than evolutionary when taken as a whole. In the same way that Microsoft has “embraced and extended” the functionality of tech competitors and nominal partners in the past (from its “coopetition” with Novell in networking to its “cutting off” of Netscape’s air supply in the Web software market), Windows 2012 and related technology make many previously advanced server and storage virtualization features into a commodity. Hyper-V alone, which we’ll cover in greater depth later this week, offers enough in the way of new features and capabilities that it could disrupt the business models of VMware and other IT companies that have profited from previous gaps in Microsoft’s capabilities.

There’s far too much in Server 2012 to cover in one sitting. And given that we've spent less than a week with the final code for Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition, we've certainly not been able to put it through all its paces yet. So, in this first look at the finished product, we cover the highlights of the new operating system from the perspective of a small or mid-size organization. We take a look at the new storage and file server features of the operating system, and some of the ways that Server 2012 will make it easier for organizations to do high-availability and disaster recovery without making big investments in other hardware or software. And we also look at the improvements to manageability and deployment in Server 2012, and how they integrate into existing server deployments, as well as the licensing changes and the way they’ll affect how (or if) you deploy Windows Server.

The new Standard

The two editions of Server 2012 being released today—Standard and Datacenter—replace six of the editions of Server 2008. The Small Business Standard, Enterprise, HPC, and Web editions of Windows Server have been “retired," though Microsoft will offer a free HPC software pack add-on to Standard and Datacenter for high performance computing customers. The split is fairly simple. If you're running a major application on a dedicated machine—Exchange and SharePoint server apps, a SQL Server database, or just about anything that goes beyond basic file and print services—you’ll be using the Standard edition of the OS. If you're running a stack of VMs, you'll go for the Datacenter edition.

Two other versions of Server 2012 will be available. The first, Foundation edition, will only be sold through OEMs, and is intended as a totally bare-bones server with no virtualization support. Another version based on the same stripped-down code, Windows Server 2012 Essentials, will replace Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011 and will be available later this year (Microsoft recently posted a release candidate for Server Essentials, and we’ll take a first look at it later this week).

Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter both support significantly larger amounts of processing power, storage, and memory than Server 2008 R2. It handles up to 320 “logical processors,” or CPU cores, double the processing maximum for R2. Memory capacity is also doubled, up to 4 terabytes. And the failover clustering capabilities of Server 2012 have been vastly expanded, supporting up to 64 cluster nodes—up from 16 in the previous release.

PowerShell power

Server Manager gets a total makeover in Server 2012, and PowerShell is given an even broader range of “commandlets” and interfaces to customize and control the server OS and its features. Just about everything you can configure within Server 2012 is exposed through PowerShell, and can be locally or remotely scripted. That means that with just the tools provided out of the box, a Windows administrator can control almost every aspect of servers deployed locally or off in a cloud—whether it's a private cloud hosted on-site or in a provider’s data center, or up in someone’s public cloud and connected over the enhanced networking features in Windows 2012.

Timothy Warner, a trainer at CBT Nuggets specializing in Windows system administration, told Ars that Server 2012 is “mostly evolutionary” as far as changes go, and most Windows administrators will find their skills translate cleanly over to the new operating system without much of a learning curve.

And based on my experience, though the new features (such as the vastly expanded capabilities of PowerShell) are deep enough to take some time to dig into, Windows Server 2012 is generally easier to administer and deploy out of the box than previous versions. Configuring a new Active Directory domain, for example—even within a legacy Active Directory "forest"—went a lot less painfully and a lot more quickly for me on Server 2012 than it had been in previous versions. And a lot of that is thanks to the new Windows Management Framework (version 3.0), which includes the expanded PowerShell instrumentation of the Server's management features. In organizations with simpler infrastructures, Server Manager may be the only management tool admins need.

The previous release of Server Manager looked like most Windows management tools, with a two-pane Explorer-based interface. The new Server Manager in Server 2012 is a functionally driven dashboard that provides direct access to most of the log data and administrative tools needed to keep on top of server functions.

Enlarge/ The old Server Manager on Windows Server 2008 R2, for comparison purposes.

Like its previous incarnation, Server Manager allows administrators to manage the local server as well as remote servers. But in Server 2012, it also can be used to instantly jump into a remote PowerShell session on a remote server, and add and remove server features remotely.

Enlarge/ The Add Roles and Features wizard in Server 2012, configuring Active Directory on a remote server.

With the addition of Windows Management Framework 3.0 to Server 2008 machines—an upgrade to PowerShell and Windows Remote Management capabilities available at the time of testing for this article from Microsoft as a Release Candidate update—Server 2012’s server manager will be able to administer and track those machines as well. That capability remained somewhat theoretical at the time I performed my testing; I wasn’t successful in getting the beta of WinRM 3.0 to work in my Server 2008 R2 test server.

Enlarge/ Configuring a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2012 using the Sconfig.cmd script provided in the install.

Sean Gallagher

Cutting to the Core

Even though you can install the full Windows 8-like UI atop Server 2012, you probably won’t want to. Better yet, you don’t have to. Like its predecessor, Windows Server 2012 can be deployed with the graphical interface, or as a “Server Core”—that is, with a minimal user interface that includes the command line and the PowerShell command interpreter.

But there are additional shades of gray between the bare bones UI and the full Metro Monty—you can also deploy the Server Manager and other management tools with a graphical interface without installing the entire Metro UI. That can be done by using Server Manager, either from another server or from a workstation, to remotely manage the server and deploy features in fine-grained detail, or by using PowerShell commands locally or remotely.

The initial install of both Standard and Datacenter from the DVD allows one of two options: with the full Windows 8 graphic user interface, or “Server Core”—with only a command line window to work from locally. That’s similar to the choice Windows Server 2008 R2 offered, and the installation process itself looks just like the Server 2008 R2 install with a fresh coat of Metro-ish paint.

But Server 2012 takes it further by allowing you to add or subtract interface features through the PowerShell scripting language or by way of remote management. For example, you can deploy just the graphical management tools to a server and not the rest of the user interface—and then remove them again, completely. Using PowerShell, you can zap the features permanently from the server’s disk (or virtual disk), freeing up disk space for other things—something that would have to have been done manually (and with great caution) in Server 2008 R2.

Enlarge/ Server Manager launching at startup on a modified Server Core installation—just as much GUI as you want.

Since everything you do to configure features in Server 2012, be it through the Server Manager tool or through PowerShell, can be exported as an XML template and repurposed, the configuration of a server can be used as the basis for a script-based install on other servers with PowerShell. That’s particularly helpful if you’re creating a configuration for virtual machines that you want to run particularly lean for a specific application without wasting local disk space with duplicated functionality.

I'm curious why the official name of "Windows Server 2008 R2" was expanded to "Windows Server 2008 Release 2" in the third paragraph. I know it's what it stood for, but I've never seen it referred to this way.

PowerShell Web Access is a nifty new feature as well. I can now pull up a PowerShell console from my phone : )

A few of my favorite new features: Windows Management Framework 3.0 (inc. PowerShell v3), Hyper-V 3.0, updated Server Manager and better modular support (e.g. Core to GUI and back again, removing binaries for features). I like being able to build up the server/applications with a GUI, tear it down to Core when it's ready for production, and add the minimal GUI in case my troubleshooting tools require a GUI.

I seem to recall teaming in Windows 2003 and 2008, though it was performed at the driver level. Does 2012 integrate this into the core networking stack? Would I be able to mix and match NIC's from different vendors and drivers? Is teaming used for fail over and/or additional throughput?

Also any word on quad socket pricing?

Edit: Looks like quad socket pricing is simply two dual socket licenses. Eight socket would be 4 dual socket licenses and so on.....

I seem to recall teaming in Windows 2003 and 2008, though it was performed at the driver level. Does 2012 integrate this into the core networking stack? Would I be able to mix and match NIC's from different vendors and drivers? Is teaming used for fail over and/or additional throughput?

Also any word on quad socket pricing?

Previous versions of Server supported teaming only through specific vendors' drivers. 2012 does this in the stack, and it's managable through WMF and PowerShell. Yes, you'd be able to do this acros multiple NICs from different vendors. THe quad-socket pricing is 2x two-socket pricing.

Quick correction - vSphere Replication with Site Recovery Manager removes the need for array-based replication (vSphere 5.0). In 5.1, vSphere Replication functionality was moved down to vSphere itself, rather than requiring SRM.

Previous versions of Server supported teaming only through specific vendors' drivers. 2012 does this in the stack, and it's managable through WMF and PowerShell. Yes, you'd be able to do this acros multiple NICs from different vendors. THe quad-socket pricing is 2x two-socket pricing.

Honestly, it's about damn time. Linux has only had this feature for what, 15 years? VMWare ESX has had it since at least version 3 as well.

All kidding aside, Windows Server Essentials 2012 is the closest direct replacement, though pricing and domain requirements make it hard to see a lot of adoption in the home. Windows 8 with Storage Spaces is also a possibility, though it lacks automated client backup, and has a less integrated management UI for shares and user accounts, and no plug-in model.

All kidding aside, Windows Server Essentials 2012 is the closest direct replacement, though pricing and domain requirements make it hard to see a lot of adoption in the home. Windows 8 with Storage Spaces is also a possibility, though it lacks automated client backup, and has a less integrated management UI for shares and user accounts, and no plug-in model.

Thanks SilverSee. Given that they have discontinued WHS2011, i was wondering if I am starring at a dead end. Apparently,I am.

I'm just looking for the logical migration path for Small Business Server. Want local Exchange but it looks like that option is gone...

There's integration with Exchange Server coming in Server Essentials as an option.

Installed in a single instance? Honestly though, I'm wondering if I'm just being an idiot at this point by not just finding a version that integrates with Office365. I've used SBS to manage my home network since 2003 or so, mostly as a training ground for my own skills. That concept may be out of date though, given the way everything is going.

It's a server. You won't be visiting the Windows App store. You won't be playing Angry Birds. You won't need to go to the Start Screen to check the weather. All of those things are useful in a media consumption device, but not for the machine that *provides* the media. In fact, wouldn't that just be a waste of the machine's resources?

I can easily see this thing being run GUI-less by just about everyone, because if you're serving a storefront you shouldn't be using that same machine for your Calendar Book app.

It's a server. You won't be visiting the Windows App store. You won't be playing Angry Birds. You won't need to go to the Start Screen to check the weather. All of those things are useful in a media consumption device, but not for the machine that *provides* the media. In fact, wouldn't that just be a waste of the machine's resources?

I can easily see this thing being run GUI-less by just about everyone, because if you're serving a storefront you shouldn't be using that same machine for your Calendar Book app.

It boots to the desktop, the built-in admin account can't use Metro apps and you have to turn on Desktop Experience to get the Store. The rest comes from having a shared codebase.

With Microsoft killing WHS off, this is a very relevant question on the minds of many current WHS users.

It's actually really relevant; Microsoft killed WHS off because Microsoft partners were complaining that WHS was costing them SBS sales at the low end of the market. It was always a bad solution because WHS had no migration path should your business grow; but a lot of "IT guys" would install it anyway because you could get the whole server for basically $500.

Sucks, because WHS was a really decent product that died before it had a chance to succeed in the marketplace against something like a Time Capsule. It was probably a bit overbuilt for home use though.

LOL. Some of these features were in others OSes for YEARS and YEARS. The NIC teaming in 2008 was and still is horrible joke. Funny, It was few years ago, when Microsoft was making fun in their commercials of console on Linux/FreeBSD and pushing their GUI mngmt tools and now it's one of the KILLER features of Windows. Also the disk footprint of 2008 and 2003 is horrible. It wastes so much of space on extremely expensive SAN hdds its non even funny (and grows with updates), also the memory overhead is beyound awful. So looks like Microsoft has learned some lessons and the Server 2012 looks like interesting progress. The devil is in the details, but at least on looks good on paper - something that can't be said about the older versions. And nice to see the abomination called SBS finally die. It was about damn time.

It boots to the desktop, the built-in admin account can't use Metro apps and you have to turn on Desktop Experience to get the Store. The rest comes from having a shared codebase.

Well why the hell doesn't Windows 8 have that option?!

Because it's not a server.

Yeah, but surely they could enable this option on Windows Phone 8 devices, right? I mean seriously, I'm sick of having that massive GUI overhead on my phone, WP has a great software keyboard, just give me a command line and I'll do fine.

Most important reason? Remote Desktop Services. If you're going to offer a consistent experience to your Win8 and WinRT users who are connecting into your RDS farm, you need to have the new UI, and all the touch controls, and the ability to run the new apps. It'd be far more insane to leave the UI off.

A secondary reason is that it's a shared code base. It'd actually increase the complexity of the product to fork off a different shell just for Server. You boot to the desktop and Server Manager, you can uninstall the GUI. That's plenty of shell option.

With Microsoft killing WHS off, this is a very relevant question on the minds of many current WHS users.

It's actually really relevant; Microsoft killed WHS off because Microsoft partners were complaining that WHS was costing them SBS sales at the low end of the market. It was always a bad solution because WHS had no migration path should your business grow; but a lot of "IT guys" would install it anyway because you could get the whole server for basically $500.

Sucks, because WHS was a really decent product that died before it had a chance to succeed in the marketplace against something like a Time Capsule. It was probably a bit overbuilt for home use though.

I stand corrected, didn't know they had already killed WHS and did not realize that it was actually a valid business solution.

They don't have to with Windows Server. That's the whole "Server Core" thing.

I'm going to go ahead and argue that Server Core is still running a GUI. It looks very much similar to Server 2008's Server Core mode, which ran a GUI. Granted, a very stripped down GUI. But you're still not looking at text mode.

They don't have to with Windows Server. That's the whole "Server Core" thing.

I'm going to go ahead and argue that Server Core is still running a GUI. It looks very much similar to Server 2008's Server Core mode, which ran a GUI. Granted, a very stripped down GUI. But you're still not looking at text mode.

GDI is part of the core Win32 API. You can't strip away all graphics without ripping away a huge part of the API, and all the dependencies that go with it. It'd become just a kernel that you'd have to build your own user mode APIs and services on top of it. Going to just GDI and a console window is about as low-overhead as you can ask, while still maintaining the core API set.

Sean Gallagher / Sean is Ars Technica's IT Editor. A former Navy officer, systems administrator, and network systems integrator with 20 years of IT journalism experience, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.